Keith Hamel oral history transcript

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INTERVIEW WITH KEITH HAMEL
BY ARDEN TRANDAHL APRIL 16, 2001
SUNDANCE, WYOMING
Others present, Mrs. Shirley Hamel
MR. TRANDAHL: This is Arden Trandahl and I am recording retired FWS employee
Keith Hamel. The date today is April 16, 2001. I have Keith with me here and we’re
going to talk a little bit about his career in the FWS. We’ll get his impressions and some
of his experiences. We appreciate his participation in this project. Well Keith, why
don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? Give us a little bit of background on when
you were born and things like that.
MR. HAMEL: I was born on November 2, 1930 in northeastern Colorado. Where there
was no fences. It was what they called an open prairie. The ranchers there just turned
the cows out. It was ‘free range’, that’s what my Dad called it. Free range. My folks;
that’s were they got married and set up housekeeping in 1921. I didn’t come along until
1930. From then on it was drought and disaster and hard times in the 1930s. My folks
“dried out” and starved out. They went back to where they were raised in southeast
Nebraska. That’s where I grew up and spent my early childhood days down there.
MR. TRANDAHL: So you started out in Colorado and got to Nebraska. Then you
went to school where?
MR. HAMEL: My school days were in Nuckolls County in southeast Nebraska. I went
to a rural school. There were several schools in Nuckolls County because my parents
moved around two or three times. I spent a large part of my time in what they called the
Ox Bow neighborhood. That was a little neighborhood that began in the early days of the
pioneers. I went to grade school and from there I rode a bus to school. I got on the bus
about 6:30 in the morning and I toured the country. I was the first one on and we went
probably forty to fifty miles to gather up all of the kids and got to school by eight
o’clock. I never will forget in those days, my high school days, we had a one-eyed bus
driver. He drove like he was a madman. I don’t know why we ever survived even getting
to school, let alone anything beyond that! That’s something I’ll never forget.
I graduated from high school in 1948. I got my diploma there. My folks had
always had a rough time with farming and they thought I should go to school and get a
little education. So I did, I went to Hastings College and in the fall of 1949, I taught my
first rural school. I taught for three years, 1949, 50, 51, 52. Then Uncle Sam had his eye
on me and I was drafted in the Army in May of 1952.
MR. TRANDAHL: So you are a Korean Veteran then?
MR. HAMEL: I am a Korean Veteran. Yes, I spent two years in Uncle’s Army. I was
inducted at Omaha, Nebraska. I went to Camp Crowder, Missouri to pick up my clothes
and spent the rest of the two years at Fort Riley, Kansas after taking sixteen weeks of
basic training. There were eight weeks on rifle. It was kind of a strange situation. From
there, one day they had us all line up in a single column and count of by four. My
number was number four. The first guys went into I think it was the Marine Corps.
Ever guy who had number one stepped forward and they said that they were now in the
Marine Corps. I thought I had really lucked out there because I didn’t want nothing to do
with the Marines. So it went on, they needed some truck drivers and clerical workers. I
missed that by just one because I had had some training in clerical work and in leadership
with the teaching of school. The next this was, ‘all numbers fours step forward’. That
was my number so I stepped forward and they said that we were now going to school for
eight weeks to be a cook! So I spent eight more weeks right there at Camp Funston, at
Fort Riley, Kansas. After I got out of the eight weeks, they were shipped fellows over to
Korean just as fast as they could get them ready for heavy weapons. The riflemen, truck
drivers, cooks, you name it. Anybody that could do anything went to Korea. Well, there
was a shortage of personnel at Camp Funston and by luck and chance, they picked me to
stay at Fort Riley in Camp Funston and cook there for the trainees that were being
trained for over seas duty. That’s where I spent two years of Uncle’s time.
After I got out with my honorable discharge, why, I came back and taught for two
more years at rural school and my certificate had run out. I kind of decided that maybe
that wasn’t my line of work. So I started in the retail business. I got Veterans rights and
privileges and on the job training. I think they were looking for good, hard working young
fellows that wanted to spend a lot of time with retail. But they had sort of a false
bottom. They paid you by the month and they worked you by the hour! I decided that
wasn’t the way I wanted to go either, so I started with the Histead-Lee Variety, which
was very similar to the Ben Franklin stores. I spent a couple of years there. They
transferred my to Sydney, Nebraska to a large store there. They were putting in a
fountain that had a hundred foot front. It was about a hundred foot square store and they
carried everything! Of course, I was Assistant Manager. You caught a little of
everything, which was good training but I decided that they were just using me for all
they could get. They really didn’t have a store for me to go into so I left the variety and
went into Safeway. I was in charge of the diary products and I worked part-time there
and I also worked in a fiberglass fabrication factory. We made boats, tractor cabs, coffin
vaults and I can’t think now just what else, but those were the main things. I went home
one noon and I heard the fire whistle blow. When I came back at about one o’clock, the
place had burned down! The resin and the fiberglass was a high combustible material. I
don’t know what happened, but it sure did go in a hurry.
I kind of fooled around a little bit and I thought why not take a Civil Service
examination for clerical work. They were needing some people out at the Sioux Army
Depot there at Sydney, Nebraska. I got on the roster and by the time I got on, why, their
quota had been filled. They put my eligibility in with the FWS.
MR. TRANDAHL: That was probably a good move for you! A lucky break!
MR. HAMEL: It was beginning to be! I got a call from Fort Niobrara, at Valentine,
Nebraska. They had an opening for a Clerk.
MR. TRANDAHL: That’s a National Wildlife Refuge?
MR. HAMEL: Yes. Howard Moon was the Manager there. We talked and he was a
nice fellow. Everything looked good, and the word was go. But he said that anybody else
who was already established in FWS could have the job and they would create another
vacancy someplace else. That was the case. I fellow by the name of Fred Rush was
already working at the Crescent Lake NWR and he wanted a transfer. So he took the job
at Valentine and that opened it up about 45 or 50 miles from Sydney. So everything
worked out. I went up in the Sand Hills and checked that out. Housing was bad! There a
Pony Express house that FWS had which was to be used for the clerical personnel. They
had another ranch type house for the maintenance man. Of course, the Manager lived in
the HQ house. They said they had a bid in to the regional office to build two new houses.
They were badly in need of them. I took the job.
MR. TRANDAHL: I guess you and Shirley were married at the time?
MR. HAMEL: Yes. Shirley and I married before I went in the Service in 1952. Of
course I went on in and Shirley stayed. She also taught school. When I came back,
why,…
MR. TRANDAHL: So you moved to Crescent Lake together then?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, we moved to Crescent Lake. That was quite an experience. We had
good hard roads from Sydney on Highway 6, on to Highway 34, I believe it was. We
went straight north to Oshkosh. Then from Oshkosh, it was thirty miles up to the
refuge. The further north we went, the less road we ended up with. Finally we were into
opening gates and crossing cattle guards. We had to be real careful not to get stuck in the
sand. That sand was like sugar. You drive through that and the car just sunk and there
you were! We soon learned that you didn’t fool around crossing a blow area in the sand.
Otherwise you were on foot! But we took the job and moved out there. There were a lot
of lakes. That first winter the well froze up coming in to the house, and the sewer froze
up going out. When spring came we had a good population of mice. The old house was
pretty drafty. There were times when we killed mice with flyswatters! It as terrible!
But in 1964, they did build two brand new houses and the clerical person, which was
myself, and the maintenance man, who was Chris Schuller each, got a new house to live
in. It was a three bedroom, full basement, with an attached garage. It was really nice.
The Manager at that time was Richard Rogers. He had been there since about 1958
maybe. Then he transferred out at about 1965. Then the next Manager was John
Wilbrecht. He transferring in from I believe it was Wisconsin. There was only three
people. The refuge was 46,000 acres, which was originally a great big cattle ranch that the
government had bought. They thought it was a suitable area to raise ducks. There were
lots of grouse, antelope, pheasants, deer, and an occasional elk would pass through the
area. There were lots of ducks and we had about three hundred free flying Canadian geese
that stayed around refuge HQ. We used to take the government grain truck and go to
Kerwin, Kansas to haul milo and go to the refuge down at Omaha; Blair National Wildlife
Refuge, they raised a lot of corn. They raised a lot of corn. So we’d make a two-day trip
and haul back a big load in a two and a half ton truck of corn. The maintenance man made
a self-feeder. So we just put that grain in the self-feeder so the geese could get it. They
learned where to come. We scattered a little around on the ground to entice them to go to
the feeder. When spring came, why, they’d go out on the lake and make their nests. We
had a lot of trouble with coons. What the maintenance man did with the suggestion of the
manager was to make nesting islands out of poles. We bolted them together. They had
four legs on them. At the top we’d cover them with a sort of woven wire. Then we’d got
get some hay in the pickups and throw it on top of the nesting island, then another cover
of wire so the hay would stay there. We’d throw an old tire on top for them to nest in
and it worked! Those darn geese would find those nesting islands, which we’d, made and
haul them out on the ice. We set them on the ice and when the ice would melt in the
spring they’d drop in to the water. Those geese would find those nesting islands and we
raised Canadian geese! We’d got out there in a canoe. I was with the manager a lot of
times. We’d go and check the islands and find out how many little goslings we had in the
nests.
MR. TRANDAHL: It sounds like the duties of a Refuge Clerk were more than just
paperwork.
MR. HAMEL: Yes, you’re right Arden. I got in on a lot of that outside stuff. This was
due to the fact that I had a farm background and I knew how to do a lot of things that
needed to be done on the refuge. Then, when the weather was bad and we’d get done
with the clutch counts with the grouse and geese and ducks and everything, it’s was my
job to take of all of the grazing permitees on the refuge. I counted the cattle on the refuge.
I counted them off of the refuge and I computed all of the grazing bills. It was my job to
collect the checks, submit the billings and correspond and be with the permitees. We got
certified checks; and after I got the bill all made up and the checks received from the
permitees, the manager would sign it and I’d send it in to the regional office. We had quite
a moneymaking thing that supported a lot of the other refuges for bird restoration and
project that they used the money for. I thoroughly enjoyed it there. I loved that area.
MR. TRANDAHL: How long were you at Crescent Lake then?
MR. HAMEL: I started there on July 5, 1960. My two kids; my oldest boy and my
daughter were real small. They also went to a sand hill school. The school was about
three or four miles away. We had to take them every morning and go and get them. The
teacher lived right there in a trailer house on the school grounds during the week. If the
weather was bad, she would stay the weekend until the weather was nice and she could go
to town. My two older kids had the same teacher for gee, about six or seven years. I
didn’t feel that they were getting the right kind of education that they needed. They were
missing out on a lot of activities that kids get in town. So I put in for a transfer. I
received a transfer to the Detroit Lakes, Minnesota at the Job Corps Center. My duties
there with Job Corps were as a Corpsman Supervisor of a dormitory of about fifty boys.
I would say forty of them were colored; seven of them or the rest of the ten were a mix
between Spanish American, Indian and white. They boys were mostly colored.
MR. TRANDAHL: So the Job Corps program was initiated and funded by Congress,
but the FWS was one of the agencies that ran Job Corps camps?
MR. HAMEL: That’s right. And it was through the administration of President Nixon
that he promoted that through FWS and it was a branch of FWS.
MR. TRANDAHL: It was a training program for the boys?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, it was a training program for the wayward boys. It took them off of
the streets and put them in to school there at the Job Corps center. They went to school
for a week, and the next week they would go to a training center. There were several
different areas; woodworking, mechanics, and several difference types of activities to train
these young boys so that they could go back home and get a job and be off being a
deadbeat. A lot of the boys that came there; it was really sad. Some of those boys
couldn’t do much more that write their names! My background was in education. I used
to help the boys write letters.
MR. TRANDAHL: Is that right? What kind of letters?
MR. HAMEL: Well, they couldn’t write. They’d call home but that was expensive and
they’d run out of money. The Job Corps supervisor said that since I had had
administrative and clerical background that I should help the boys write letters. I started
out of an evening after they came back from their daytime activities. We got together
with the boys and helped them. They wanted to write letters to their girlfriends. So I
said, “Okay, what would you like to say?” “Tell her that I am thinking about her and I’d
like to be with her”. I’d help them get the different ideas that they had down on paper.
They thought that was really pretty nice. In about several days, I found out that the
whole dormitory was writing letters. I thought, ‘gee, this really took hold!’ What I had
found out after I had helped this one or two guys or maybe three, and what did the rest of
them do, but copy them! They sent out about fifty love letters to their girlfriends all
written by the same person! But it worked, and they all got letters. The supervisor was
happy. And of course they would receive letters and some of them couldn’t hardly read
it. It was a fun job, I enjoyed it. Then the Corpsman supervisor came up with the
vacancy at the PX. The center had a PX there for the boys. When the Corpsmen didn’t
have anything else to do, why, they could go watch a movie, or shoot pool, or buy a
candy bar. They were given so much for an allowance each month. They wanted
somebody to run that. So I got picked for that, so I was a glorified Pool Hall manager
there for a while till it finally closed. One project that we had going, and I had it pretty
well accomplished was that from the sales of the small items like candy bars and popcorn
and potato chips and everything; we had enough money saved up to buy a television. We
had just bought it and were just about to receive it, (they had it ordered), when the final
word came that Job Corps was closing. That was in 1969. The spring of 1969. I had
been there for about a year and things were really going good for me until we got work
that they were going to close. Nixon was going to close everything. We didn’t know
what was going to happen. My supervisor was a retired Army Major. He was the
Corpsmen Supervisor. It was his job to run those Corpsmen like the military. He was an
old military man and that’s the way he ran things. Anybody who didn’t like either bent
to his way of thinking or they weren’t around very long. He was a good guy if he liked
you and you really wanted to like him. He could do a lot of things for you. And he was
fair. He was honest and he was fair. Maybe people didn’t like the way he ran things, but
in the long run it was good. He used to tell me, “Hamel, they can’t close this place, we’re
doing too good of a job! Keep the faith! Do your job and do it good!” He gave us good
moral support and he lived what he said and he believed what he said. But when those
buses came the first time to pick up those boys he couldn’t believe it.
MR. TRANDAHL: This was when they were closing the camp and moving the boys
away?
MR. HAMEL: Yep, they were moving the boys. Some of the boys transferred to other
camps that were staying open a little bit longer, those that were about to graduate. But
the ones who weren’t had no other place to go except that we gave them a one-way ticket
home. It was sad. Those boys, most of them liked it there. We were out in the woods
there at Tamarac. There’s the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge up there in the woods.
That’s what they wanted; a place that was isolated so that when they got there, the boys
could be slinking off. It was too far to walk and too cold to hitch a ride in the wintertime.
It was a good place to stay in the winter and learn something. We were doing a good job,
we were. We had good ratings. Our capacity was two hundred boys; fifty to a
dormitory. There were four dormitories. They were named bird names like the Redhead
dormitory, the Bluegill for the fish dormitory, golly, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten what
the other two were, but they were names of things that were on the refuge so that it all
kind of created the atmosphere of fish and wildlife. Of course we had our signs and
emblems and we wore uniforms. All of the employees were given a uniform allowance.
We had the shirts and that patches.
MR. TRANDAHL: So you wore the FWS uniform?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, we sure did. We had the hats; caps, coats, shirts, pants and then we
had our summer and then our winter uniform. We were given allotments to buy them
from different sources of supply. There was a catalog. All our vehicles were marked
with the FWS emblem on it. It was a nice organization. I thoroughly enjoyed it. They
finally closed it and when the boys were practically all gone and there were only a few of
the staff left, Bob Summers he took his daughter and her friend to the movies.
MR. TRANDAHL: He was the Camp Director?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, he was the Corpsmen supervisor. And it so happened that Howard
Woon left Refuges, well the refuge phase of it. He was the director from the Minneapolis
center. He was the director not only of Tamarac but a few other Job Corps centers in
region three. His fellow Bob Summers was an employee of FWS, but in the Job Corps
division. He came home that one night and he just couldn’t believe what was happening;
that they were doing totally away with the Job Corps part of it. He came home and his
daughter went in the house to go to bed. He drove the car in the garage and closed the
door and that’s were they found him the next morning. We had a strange incident with
one of the schoolteachers there. He went fishing. This was before Bob’s final day. He
went fishing to one of the close by lakes that were all around. Someway or another, he
didn’t make a curve and he ran smack dab into a big tree and that was the end of him.
People took Job Corps serious because it was a good program. It was betterment
for a lot of troubled boys. There also were some Job Corps sites in Omaha, Nebraska
and in Clinton, Iowa. These two were for females. They had similar programs for girls.
We used to do some corresponding with them for different functions and activities that
we could correlate with them.
MR. TRANDAHL: When did you leave from there?
MR. HAMEL: I was transferred to Bulla, Wyoming. I had never heard of such a place!
What in the world was there? It was a fish hatchery, USFWS fish hatchery. It was a
genetics research station raising Rainbow Trout. I arrived there on June 15, 1969. A
fellow by the name of Bruno Von Limbaugh was the Director. I can remember the first
words that he ever spoke to me. He never looked up. I walked in and introduced myself
to Edna Sager, the Clerk. They were expecting me because they had said that they could
take some of the employees that had quite a bit of time. At that time I had ten years in.
It was a little over ten years, in fact, and I didn’t want to waste it. I didn’t have enough
time to retire. I like the FWS and I wanted to continue. So that was the reason I took the
transfer even though I didn’t know anything much about the fish. I was told not to
worry. I would be taught anything and everything you’ll need to know. Well, it sounded
good. Of course they were trying to place as many people as they could, and people
were mostly grateful for that fact. I arrived there and the old boy says, “The first thing
you better do young man is find you a place to live!” I didn’t know what to think or say.
I asked him if he had any idea where I might be able to find a place. “We are not in the
business of renting places to live! We raise fish!” He told me to hurry and find a place to
live and get back in and get to work. I thought that was pretty rude and abrupt. I had
never been there before in my life. I didn’t know anyone, or any place to go to even look.
At that time there was a little motel on the highway, which was to become interstate 90.
It was five miles from the fish lab so I rented a room and started to look for a place to
live. I went to Spearfish and I went to Belle Fourche and Sundance. Things were tight. I
went ahead, before I brought family from Detroit Lakes to see what I could find, and let
them know where to bring the furniture and everything we had complete the move. I had
to call and tell them not to come. I couldn’t find anything! I said, “It’s just tighter than
fiddle strings!” So the McNenny State fish hatchery was real close. It was about seven
or eight miles from the Genetics Research Station. So I went over there and talked with
some of the employees. They didn’t really know of anything that could be rented or used
for a family to live in. They were moving fish. They were busy and I didn’t want to take
up any more of their time than I had to. So I came back and I didn’t know what to do.
One of the wives, Mrs. Storebeck, Clarence Storebeck’s wife, she had heard that there
were going to be some new employees down at Ranch A. She was curious to get
acquainted, and I was eager to talk with somebody that would be halfway what I thought
was civil and friendly. She told me that there was a ranch house just over the hill from her
place. I couldn’t believe what she was saying! The house might be available for rent. So
I jumped on that right quick, and sure enough it was about a mile and a half from
McNenny Fish Hatchery. I rented it from a farmer/rancher. It was a two-story house. I
rented the down part. It was two bedrooms, a big living room and a kitchen with a porch
and a garage. It was a rural setting, which eventually worked out real good. It was close
to Ranch A. The roads weren’t too good. I was lucky enough to have an old four-wheel
drive that sure came in handy. The roads were terrible. In the wintertime you couldn’t
hardly get there many times without chaining up the four wheel-drive to get down there
and then to get back. It was really tough on vehicles. The area was a beautiful area.
Ranch A was in a beautiful setting. It was a former ranch that the government had bought
previously through a lot of dealing from Mo Annenberg. His name went down in history.
That could be another story for another time. Ranch A was the Annenberg Ranch. It was
beautiful. They had a beautiful log lodge and a beautiful barn, which was built. There
was another two-story garage/living quarters. Then they had built another complex that
they called R and D One. That’s were they raised the small fish until they got to be six to
eight inches long or one or two pounds. Then, later on they built what they called the R
and D Two complex. This was the area for the adult fish. I worked with the adult fish.
There were a hundred and twenty-six tanks. Those tanks varied in size from four foot to
eight foot. What most of them were was metal livestock tanks that were coated so the
metal wouldn’t be toxic to the Rainbow Trout. Then, many of the other deep tanks; they
were about four foot deep and eight foot across fiberglass. All of that water down there
was artesian. The water was endless. They piped it through various ways to get the
most use out of it and raise fish up there at R and D One where they had the eggs. They
would spawn the fish and extract the eggs and put them in incubators. That’s where we
raised a lot of fish.
MR. TRANDAH: So these fish were being developed into new strains and things like
this through manipulating the genetics?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, they had several different stains of fish. We had a few albinos. But
basically it was the variations of the rainbow trout. What they wanted to do was
eventually; well, basically a rainbow trout will spawn once a year, usually in the spring.
They wanted to take those fish and hybridize them to the point where they would spawn
at least twice a year. The same fish would spawn twice a year. We cross bread, in bread,
out bread and eventually it was down. We had fish that would spawn twice a year. That
was a real big plus. But it was the way that the personnel was handled that was the sour
part of it. The employees were given very little consideration. The Director’s name will
give you an idea perhaps, of how things was ran, when his name was Bruno Von
Limbaugh. That’s kind of a tough twister, and he passed that on to his employees. He
was a very sharp, critical person.
MR. TRANDAHL: We changed the tape here; we were just talking about Bruno.
MR. HAMEL: Yeah, Bruno was an awful hard guy to work with or even for; that was
worse. Everybody, all the staff stayed as far away from him as they could because he
was always derogatory and critical. Even the neighborhood down there at Sand Creek,
close to the ranch never fraternized with the staff because he was so antagonistic. Finally,
one incident that we had was that we got word that we were going to have an inspection
from our office in Washington. We were directly administered from D.C. They had to
fly in to Rapid City and rent a car and drive out. Well, when they got there, it was
around mid morning about 9:30 or ten o’clock. They drove up to headquarters and he
was in the spring. I was cutting grass that particular morning with the lawnmower.
Bruno went out there to greet them and he said, “Where in the world have you fellows
been? We start work here at eight o’clock! That’s when I except you people to be here!”
He was giving those guys; his supervisors, what for and they were coming from
Washington, D.C.! They didn’t really take that too well. They didn’t like that. It
wasn’t very long after that that Mr. Bruno received transfer orders. He didn’t want to go,
but they threatened to close the place up because they didn’t feel, or at least the word got
down, that they didn’t feel that Bruno was accomplishing what the FWS wanted out of
Ranch A. He thought they were, so there was a big difference of opinion. He was on the
short end and they were on the authority end so he had to do what was sent down. He
eventually transferred back to Virginia, I guess. It is some place back east. When he got
there, the story that I’ve heard is, and it might be a little bit different according to whom
you talk to; but when he got there he didn’t have any staff, hardly a place to go to call an
office, or a room that had anything in it for furniture. He finally had to scrounge a chair
and a desk. He never really had anything to do. He was never given any directives to do
any work for the FWS. He finally just wrote a note in the desk, that he wasn’t coming
back and that was the end of him.
Later on, a fellow by the name of Bob Bridges and Ray Simon became directors of
the FWS Ranch Aide down there.
MR. TRANDAHL: Ray Simon was before Bob Bridges?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, Ray Simon followed Bruno. He was down there a couple years
maybe, and then he transferred out. Then Bob Bridges, who had been there, previously
under a different title, came back as Director. He would be the one to finalize the closing
of Ranch A. That morning; it was the early part of August or the later part of July, I’m
not real sure. It was early fall or late summer, that we had a staff at one time of probably
ten or fifteen people. Some lived in Sundance, some lived in Spearfish, some lived in
Bulla, and others lived right on the Ranch A complex itself. We, as soon as everybody
got there at eight o’clock, the word was that everybody was to go to the main office for a
staff meeting. Gee whiz, what in the world is going on now? Everybody walked in and
never said a word. They didn’t dare say anything. At least, that’s what we felt; we
didn’t want to get somebody’s foot shoved down our throats. We just were quiet and
listened to what was said. He said, “We are now officially closed. We will start phasing
out employees and fish tomorrow.” Everybody couldn’t believe what we were hearing!
It was the process of closing the Fish Genetics Laboratory at Bulla, Wyoming. I, and a
fellow by the name of Jack Howell, were offered, since we had been under a writ from the
Job Corps; we heard first hand that we would be given the first opportunity to transfer
someplace else. He took the transfer. I think he had just built a new home through an
FHA program or something like that. He had just about finished this new home in
Spearfish. I was living in Sundance, and had recently bought a house. My wife was
working at the manager of a motel there in Sundance. We had just recently acquired an
apartment house. We had an awful decision to make as to whether to transfer and take a
third chance with FWS, or go out on our own. I had enough time. I had I think it was 22
years of federal service; with my military and the time with refuges and the Jobs Corp.
And I had put in eleven years plus at Ranch A with the fisheries end of it. I was just
short of the age of fifty. You had to be fifty years old and have twenty years service to
be able to retire. My birthday is in November, and this happened in August, I believe. It
seems like it was in August. They got real sharp and nasty with me because I wouldn’t
transfer. When I asked them where I was to go they really wouldn’t tell me for sure; nor
would they give me any satisfaction of actually having a job when I transferred! I might
transfer and the job would be done away with before I’d get there. I just didn’t feel like I
totally wanted to trust those people. They had done a lot of crazy things to people
before, and I didn’t feel it was beyond them to do it again. I was worried again. I didn’t
know what to do. I was about six months short of being able to retire. I thought it was
pretty nasty of them not to make some kind of an arrangement so I could fulfill six more
months until I was fifty years old and then be able to retire. On my way home from
work, back to Sundance, our State Representative, Marlene Simons God bless her. I
stopped in there and she was home. I told her what the news was down there at Ranch A
and how they were closing it. I told her my situation and how I was just a little short of
being able to retire. There’s a lot of forest pastureland being permitted to ranchers. And
she and her husband had some forest land that they were running cattle on. The
forestland was neighbor to Ranch A. There was a lot of resentment and between and
jangle between Ranch A, the Forest Service and the Bemidji. Marlene and her husband
were somewhat in the middle because they were neighbors and they had land and cattle.
She didn’t exactly like the way that people had been treated in the past down at Ranch A.
She told me, “Don’t worry, I will get in contact with Cheyenne and we’ll see what we can
do.” That was the first part of the week, on a Monday or Tuesday. I think it was maybe
Wednesday, or the next day after I had seen Marlene that she went to bat. She called
Cheyenne; she called Dick Chaney at the time down there. She told him the situation
down there. Mr. Chaney said that that fellow, (me), being a Veteran and with as much
time as he’s got with federal work and with the FWS, will be able to retire. “We will see
to it that he does.” I think it was the next day after that that my wife, here in Sundance
received a call from Washington, D. C. They said don’t worry. They had received word
through Dick Chaney and Marlene Simons of the situation going on. I was told that I
would be transferred until I was old enough to retire. And if I wanted to take retirement
rather than continue I had that option. I was feeling pretty good. I did my job the best I
could to fill what they wanted, and to do what they wanted down. They got awful sharp
with me. They really got to me pretty bad. Bob Bridges, the Director at the time said,
“We have made arrangements.” I told him, “No, you haven’t made anything! I have had
telephone conversations, with paper work to follow that I will be able to retire and will be
transferred. I don’t know exactly where at the moment, but it’s all been taken care of and
you didn’t have a darn thing to do with it!” That really ticked him off! He didn’t like me
telling him what I already knew. But I just went to work, kept still and did my job and
the cards fell in the right direction. I was the last guy to leave and I was not sorry when it
happened. I did receive word that I would be transferred to the McNenny Fish Hatchery,
which was six, seven, maybe eight miles from Ranch A. I worked over there under Arden
Trandahl who turned out to be an awful good friend of mine. I think a lot of him! It come
to be November 2, and I was fifty years old. And I said, “I think I’ll just go home
Arden.” We had our home and business and I had my retirement from the FWS. I was
too young to retire. I was in good health and I kicked around for a little while. I had an
opportunity to become a security officer at the Wyodak Power Plant in Gillette,
Wyoming. Due to the fact that on refuges, part of my duties as clerk, I did various duties
as directed and as needed. I was a Game Warden. Through law enforcement, the state
laws of Nebraska, we regulated the refuge in co ordinance with state laws on hunting deer,
antelope, ducks, and some geese. It was my job along with the Refuge Manager and the
maintenance man also to check people who had been given authorization to hunt on the
refuge for a license; we had to make sure their hunting license was valid. We also checked
their bag limits. It certainly paid off in later life. That was my background that got me in
to security work over at the Wyodak power plant. I worked over there two winters and
one summer. One day, the County Sheriff who was living here of course at the time,
came over. He knew I was security officer. I had gotten acquainted with him. He said,
“Keith, I need a jailor. Why don’t you come over and start work?” I was surprised, a
jailor at a Jail? Working with all of those criminals? He told me, “It’s not as bad as you
think. Come on over and I’ll show you what I want you to do.” Holy Cow, I didn’t
know what to think! I knew that sixty miles every day was getting pretty heavy on the
old car. That was a lot of miles. He told me that I would have to use my own car to get
the meals for the inmates. Well, it the wintertime it can get pretty cold here and stay
cold. Driving a car two or three block and shutting if off and fighting snow is…. I don’t
know. I turned him down the first time. It was about a year to the month later, here he
come again. “I need a Jailor, and I want you to get over there this time!” He told me
about the sick leave, and health benefits and all of that good stuff. I told him, “Ron, I
don’t need the health benefits. I’ve got it from retiring from the FWS.” He says, “Well
super! We’ll just pay you for it!” That sounded pretty good. And he said that in
addition he had arranged to have a County vehicle to be used to go get meals for the
inmates. It sounded better all of the time. So I took him up and I became the second
Jailor that ever was in Cook County, Wyoming. I was the second Jailor and I also became
a Wyoming, Certified Jailor through going to school and obtaining my certification
through Douglas. I spent time down at Douglas learning techniques of being a Jailor. I
went to classes at Douglas and at Gillette. I was Cook County Jailor for seven years until
I was old enough to retire again.
MR. TRANDAHL: It’s really quite interesting that your background in the FWS was
very useful to you after you retired from the FWS.
MR. HAMEL: Very definitely. It was a total benefit! It worked out super.
MR. TRANDAHL: So what’s the best thing that ever happened to you in the FWS?
MR. HAMEL: The best thing that happened? Being hired!
MR. TRANDAHL: Well that’s a good answer!
MR. HAMEL: I never regretted that for a minute. Sure, there’s differences and
hardships that I went through, but all in all, man, that was it! That, I enjoyed!
MR. TRANDAHL: What’s the worst thing that happened to you then?
MR. HAMEL: Being transferred to Ranch A! [All laugh] That was something else.
MR. TRANDAHL: Well, there must have been some good experiences out there too,
though.
MR. HAMEL: Well, the one incident that really stands out in my mind that happened
very shortly after I retired. That was on November 2, 1980. I think November 2nd was
on a Friday. It worked out just perfect. It was the end of the pay period. I didn’t get to
see Arden too much. He came out, but his main stay was in Spearfish at the Booth Fish
Hatchery. That was number one, and there was McNenny. But never the less, it was a
valuable asset. I went home, finished up and waved goodbye. I was done. And the next
week, I believe it was, Arden began to set up the Christmas party for the employees as he
always did there, apparently. This was something totally different from what we ever
dreamed of at Ranch A. It was just another workday there. He called me long distance
and said, “What are you doing this Friday night?” I said, “I don’t know, what have you
got in mind?” And he told me that they were having a Christmas party and that they
wanted me to attend. I said, “What, a Christmas party?” He told me that all of the
employees were getting together and having a little party and they wanted me to come
too. That really swept me off my feet. I really didn’t know what to say. It kind of took
my breath away. My senses finally came back to me and I said, “Yeah, okay, what time
should I be there?” He said, “Oh, after supper. Right away we’ll have a little party with
a few snacks and have a good time. Six thirty or seven o’clock would work out good.” So
we did. We went down there and sure enough, everybody was having a good time and
visiting. It was unreal. I couldn’t believe the atmosphere. It was just unreal. It was
super! And later on Arden announced that we were going to have a grab bag. Holy Cow!
I hadn’t brought anything for a grab bag. He said, “Don’t worry about it, it’s all been
taken care of. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. So everybody reached
in and pulled a string out. It had a little package. They passed a little basket around and
it was my turn, so I pulled out a little package. There was a little bottle of a real good
perfume! I’ll tell you a little dab really did the trick! Everybody was joyful, and talking
about what they got and different things that happened. Arden came around and said,
“Did you get a package?” I told him I had. And he said, “Well good, I wanted everybody
to have something from the party.” That was great! That really made the whole thing
worth it. To my dying day I will always remember that.
MR. TRANDAHL: How did your family feel about your career with the FWS?
MR. HAMEL: Well, they enjoyed refuge. My youngest boy, the third member of the
family was born right after we moved there in 1961. So he was very small, but by the
time we left he was about ready to go to school. When we transferred to Detroit Lakes
we lived close to Frazee, Minnesota. They had a big school there. I think there were
about a thousand kids there that they bused in from all over; grade school kids and high
school kids too. It was a big school, and it was like night and day. I though, oh boy, here
we come from a little old one-horse grade school that had one teacher for several years;
and the education they received was quite narrow. Now, they get into a school with this
many kids and teachers. I didn’t know whether they were going to be able to handle that
or not. But they fit in good! It really worked good. As far as the family, well, we loved
it on the refuge but it was the fellowship that we had with the boys. Basically those
boys were kind, and quite courteous and they were respectful. My wife did volunteer
teaching during the school days. She worked during the day and then I would come in at
five o’clock and be with the boys ‘til about one in the morning when they went to bed.
They had a night check. There was another group of guys who made the night checks.
MR. TRANDAHL: This was at the Job Corps?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, this was the Job Corps site. I think the family enjoyed the Job
Corps because the kids were small and we went out to various activities and parties they
had on the weekends. I think they liked it pretty well too. But this fish place,
everybody was nervous on that one.
MR. TRANDAHL: Well, we’ve about run out of tape here. I just really enjoyed visiting
with you today Keith. We’ve really got some interesting things down here.
MR. HAMEL: It’s always a pleasure to visit with you Arden.
MR. TRANDAHL: We always know that sometimes in life the road is bumpy but
sometimes, well, we always generally get to the end of the road there, so. I am glad things
have worked out for you, and I have certainly enjoyed your friendship. I am just so glad
that you took the time to put some of your thoughts and experiences down on tape here.
These are very important for people to understand the FWS because we sometimes are
not really the image that people think we are. We generally have a good image, you know,
and have certainly the best employees in government, I think. I thank you very much and
we’ll see that you get a copy of this.
MR. HAMEL: Well, thank you Arden. And again, I appreciate everything you’ve done.
This has been an enjoyable afternoon.

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INTERVIEW WITH KEITH HAMEL
BY ARDEN TRANDAHL APRIL 16, 2001
SUNDANCE, WYOMING
Others present, Mrs. Shirley Hamel
MR. TRANDAHL: This is Arden Trandahl and I am recording retired FWS employee
Keith Hamel. The date today is April 16, 2001. I have Keith with me here and we’re
going to talk a little bit about his career in the FWS. We’ll get his impressions and some
of his experiences. We appreciate his participation in this project. Well Keith, why
don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? Give us a little bit of background on when
you were born and things like that.
MR. HAMEL: I was born on November 2, 1930 in northeastern Colorado. Where there
was no fences. It was what they called an open prairie. The ranchers there just turned
the cows out. It was ‘free range’, that’s what my Dad called it. Free range. My folks;
that’s were they got married and set up housekeeping in 1921. I didn’t come along until
1930. From then on it was drought and disaster and hard times in the 1930s. My folks
“dried out” and starved out. They went back to where they were raised in southeast
Nebraska. That’s where I grew up and spent my early childhood days down there.
MR. TRANDAHL: So you started out in Colorado and got to Nebraska. Then you
went to school where?
MR. HAMEL: My school days were in Nuckolls County in southeast Nebraska. I went
to a rural school. There were several schools in Nuckolls County because my parents
moved around two or three times. I spent a large part of my time in what they called the
Ox Bow neighborhood. That was a little neighborhood that began in the early days of the
pioneers. I went to grade school and from there I rode a bus to school. I got on the bus
about 6:30 in the morning and I toured the country. I was the first one on and we went
probably forty to fifty miles to gather up all of the kids and got to school by eight
o’clock. I never will forget in those days, my high school days, we had a one-eyed bus
driver. He drove like he was a madman. I don’t know why we ever survived even getting
to school, let alone anything beyond that! That’s something I’ll never forget.
I graduated from high school in 1948. I got my diploma there. My folks had
always had a rough time with farming and they thought I should go to school and get a
little education. So I did, I went to Hastings College and in the fall of 1949, I taught my
first rural school. I taught for three years, 1949, 50, 51, 52. Then Uncle Sam had his eye
on me and I was drafted in the Army in May of 1952.
MR. TRANDAHL: So you are a Korean Veteran then?
MR. HAMEL: I am a Korean Veteran. Yes, I spent two years in Uncle’s Army. I was
inducted at Omaha, Nebraska. I went to Camp Crowder, Missouri to pick up my clothes
and spent the rest of the two years at Fort Riley, Kansas after taking sixteen weeks of
basic training. There were eight weeks on rifle. It was kind of a strange situation. From
there, one day they had us all line up in a single column and count of by four. My
number was number four. The first guys went into I think it was the Marine Corps.
Ever guy who had number one stepped forward and they said that they were now in the
Marine Corps. I thought I had really lucked out there because I didn’t want nothing to do
with the Marines. So it went on, they needed some truck drivers and clerical workers. I
missed that by just one because I had had some training in clerical work and in leadership
with the teaching of school. The next this was, ‘all numbers fours step forward’. That
was my number so I stepped forward and they said that we were now going to school for
eight weeks to be a cook! So I spent eight more weeks right there at Camp Funston, at
Fort Riley, Kansas. After I got out of the eight weeks, they were shipped fellows over to
Korean just as fast as they could get them ready for heavy weapons. The riflemen, truck
drivers, cooks, you name it. Anybody that could do anything went to Korea. Well, there
was a shortage of personnel at Camp Funston and by luck and chance, they picked me to
stay at Fort Riley in Camp Funston and cook there for the trainees that were being
trained for over seas duty. That’s where I spent two years of Uncle’s time.
After I got out with my honorable discharge, why, I came back and taught for two
more years at rural school and my certificate had run out. I kind of decided that maybe
that wasn’t my line of work. So I started in the retail business. I got Veterans rights and
privileges and on the job training. I think they were looking for good, hard working young
fellows that wanted to spend a lot of time with retail. But they had sort of a false
bottom. They paid you by the month and they worked you by the hour! I decided that
wasn’t the way I wanted to go either, so I started with the Histead-Lee Variety, which
was very similar to the Ben Franklin stores. I spent a couple of years there. They
transferred my to Sydney, Nebraska to a large store there. They were putting in a
fountain that had a hundred foot front. It was about a hundred foot square store and they
carried everything! Of course, I was Assistant Manager. You caught a little of
everything, which was good training but I decided that they were just using me for all
they could get. They really didn’t have a store for me to go into so I left the variety and
went into Safeway. I was in charge of the diary products and I worked part-time there
and I also worked in a fiberglass fabrication factory. We made boats, tractor cabs, coffin
vaults and I can’t think now just what else, but those were the main things. I went home
one noon and I heard the fire whistle blow. When I came back at about one o’clock, the
place had burned down! The resin and the fiberglass was a high combustible material. I
don’t know what happened, but it sure did go in a hurry.
I kind of fooled around a little bit and I thought why not take a Civil Service
examination for clerical work. They were needing some people out at the Sioux Army
Depot there at Sydney, Nebraska. I got on the roster and by the time I got on, why, their
quota had been filled. They put my eligibility in with the FWS.
MR. TRANDAHL: That was probably a good move for you! A lucky break!
MR. HAMEL: It was beginning to be! I got a call from Fort Niobrara, at Valentine,
Nebraska. They had an opening for a Clerk.
MR. TRANDAHL: That’s a National Wildlife Refuge?
MR. HAMEL: Yes. Howard Moon was the Manager there. We talked and he was a
nice fellow. Everything looked good, and the word was go. But he said that anybody else
who was already established in FWS could have the job and they would create another
vacancy someplace else. That was the case. I fellow by the name of Fred Rush was
already working at the Crescent Lake NWR and he wanted a transfer. So he took the job
at Valentine and that opened it up about 45 or 50 miles from Sydney. So everything
worked out. I went up in the Sand Hills and checked that out. Housing was bad! There a
Pony Express house that FWS had which was to be used for the clerical personnel. They
had another ranch type house for the maintenance man. Of course, the Manager lived in
the HQ house. They said they had a bid in to the regional office to build two new houses.
They were badly in need of them. I took the job.
MR. TRANDAHL: I guess you and Shirley were married at the time?
MR. HAMEL: Yes. Shirley and I married before I went in the Service in 1952. Of
course I went on in and Shirley stayed. She also taught school. When I came back,
why,…
MR. TRANDAHL: So you moved to Crescent Lake together then?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, we moved to Crescent Lake. That was quite an experience. We had
good hard roads from Sydney on Highway 6, on to Highway 34, I believe it was. We
went straight north to Oshkosh. Then from Oshkosh, it was thirty miles up to the
refuge. The further north we went, the less road we ended up with. Finally we were into
opening gates and crossing cattle guards. We had to be real careful not to get stuck in the
sand. That sand was like sugar. You drive through that and the car just sunk and there
you were! We soon learned that you didn’t fool around crossing a blow area in the sand.
Otherwise you were on foot! But we took the job and moved out there. There were a lot
of lakes. That first winter the well froze up coming in to the house, and the sewer froze
up going out. When spring came we had a good population of mice. The old house was
pretty drafty. There were times when we killed mice with flyswatters! It as terrible!
But in 1964, they did build two brand new houses and the clerical person, which was
myself, and the maintenance man, who was Chris Schuller each, got a new house to live
in. It was a three bedroom, full basement, with an attached garage. It was really nice.
The Manager at that time was Richard Rogers. He had been there since about 1958
maybe. Then he transferred out at about 1965. Then the next Manager was John
Wilbrecht. He transferring in from I believe it was Wisconsin. There was only three
people. The refuge was 46,000 acres, which was originally a great big cattle ranch that the
government had bought. They thought it was a suitable area to raise ducks. There were
lots of grouse, antelope, pheasants, deer, and an occasional elk would pass through the
area. There were lots of ducks and we had about three hundred free flying Canadian geese
that stayed around refuge HQ. We used to take the government grain truck and go to
Kerwin, Kansas to haul milo and go to the refuge down at Omaha; Blair National Wildlife
Refuge, they raised a lot of corn. They raised a lot of corn. So we’d make a two-day trip
and haul back a big load in a two and a half ton truck of corn. The maintenance man made
a self-feeder. So we just put that grain in the self-feeder so the geese could get it. They
learned where to come. We scattered a little around on the ground to entice them to go to
the feeder. When spring came, why, they’d go out on the lake and make their nests. We
had a lot of trouble with coons. What the maintenance man did with the suggestion of the
manager was to make nesting islands out of poles. We bolted them together. They had
four legs on them. At the top we’d cover them with a sort of woven wire. Then we’d got
get some hay in the pickups and throw it on top of the nesting island, then another cover
of wire so the hay would stay there. We’d throw an old tire on top for them to nest in
and it worked! Those darn geese would find those nesting islands, which we’d, made and
haul them out on the ice. We set them on the ice and when the ice would melt in the
spring they’d drop in to the water. Those geese would find those nesting islands and we
raised Canadian geese! We’d got out there in a canoe. I was with the manager a lot of
times. We’d go and check the islands and find out how many little goslings we had in the
nests.
MR. TRANDAHL: It sounds like the duties of a Refuge Clerk were more than just
paperwork.
MR. HAMEL: Yes, you’re right Arden. I got in on a lot of that outside stuff. This was
due to the fact that I had a farm background and I knew how to do a lot of things that
needed to be done on the refuge. Then, when the weather was bad and we’d get done
with the clutch counts with the grouse and geese and ducks and everything, it’s was my
job to take of all of the grazing permitees on the refuge. I counted the cattle on the refuge.
I counted them off of the refuge and I computed all of the grazing bills. It was my job to
collect the checks, submit the billings and correspond and be with the permitees. We got
certified checks; and after I got the bill all made up and the checks received from the
permitees, the manager would sign it and I’d send it in to the regional office. We had quite
a moneymaking thing that supported a lot of the other refuges for bird restoration and
project that they used the money for. I thoroughly enjoyed it there. I loved that area.
MR. TRANDAHL: How long were you at Crescent Lake then?
MR. HAMEL: I started there on July 5, 1960. My two kids; my oldest boy and my
daughter were real small. They also went to a sand hill school. The school was about
three or four miles away. We had to take them every morning and go and get them. The
teacher lived right there in a trailer house on the school grounds during the week. If the
weather was bad, she would stay the weekend until the weather was nice and she could go
to town. My two older kids had the same teacher for gee, about six or seven years. I
didn’t feel that they were getting the right kind of education that they needed. They were
missing out on a lot of activities that kids get in town. So I put in for a transfer. I
received a transfer to the Detroit Lakes, Minnesota at the Job Corps Center. My duties
there with Job Corps were as a Corpsman Supervisor of a dormitory of about fifty boys.
I would say forty of them were colored; seven of them or the rest of the ten were a mix
between Spanish American, Indian and white. They boys were mostly colored.
MR. TRANDAHL: So the Job Corps program was initiated and funded by Congress,
but the FWS was one of the agencies that ran Job Corps camps?
MR. HAMEL: That’s right. And it was through the administration of President Nixon
that he promoted that through FWS and it was a branch of FWS.
MR. TRANDAHL: It was a training program for the boys?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, it was a training program for the wayward boys. It took them off of
the streets and put them in to school there at the Job Corps center. They went to school
for a week, and the next week they would go to a training center. There were several
different areas; woodworking, mechanics, and several difference types of activities to train
these young boys so that they could go back home and get a job and be off being a
deadbeat. A lot of the boys that came there; it was really sad. Some of those boys
couldn’t do much more that write their names! My background was in education. I used
to help the boys write letters.
MR. TRANDAHL: Is that right? What kind of letters?
MR. HAMEL: Well, they couldn’t write. They’d call home but that was expensive and
they’d run out of money. The Job Corps supervisor said that since I had had
administrative and clerical background that I should help the boys write letters. I started
out of an evening after they came back from their daytime activities. We got together
with the boys and helped them. They wanted to write letters to their girlfriends. So I
said, “Okay, what would you like to say?” “Tell her that I am thinking about her and I’d
like to be with her”. I’d help them get the different ideas that they had down on paper.
They thought that was really pretty nice. In about several days, I found out that the
whole dormitory was writing letters. I thought, ‘gee, this really took hold!’ What I had
found out after I had helped this one or two guys or maybe three, and what did the rest of
them do, but copy them! They sent out about fifty love letters to their girlfriends all
written by the same person! But it worked, and they all got letters. The supervisor was
happy. And of course they would receive letters and some of them couldn’t hardly read
it. It was a fun job, I enjoyed it. Then the Corpsman supervisor came up with the
vacancy at the PX. The center had a PX there for the boys. When the Corpsmen didn’t
have anything else to do, why, they could go watch a movie, or shoot pool, or buy a
candy bar. They were given so much for an allowance each month. They wanted
somebody to run that. So I got picked for that, so I was a glorified Pool Hall manager
there for a while till it finally closed. One project that we had going, and I had it pretty
well accomplished was that from the sales of the small items like candy bars and popcorn
and potato chips and everything; we had enough money saved up to buy a television. We
had just bought it and were just about to receive it, (they had it ordered), when the final
word came that Job Corps was closing. That was in 1969. The spring of 1969. I had
been there for about a year and things were really going good for me until we got work
that they were going to close. Nixon was going to close everything. We didn’t know
what was going to happen. My supervisor was a retired Army Major. He was the
Corpsmen Supervisor. It was his job to run those Corpsmen like the military. He was an
old military man and that’s the way he ran things. Anybody who didn’t like either bent
to his way of thinking or they weren’t around very long. He was a good guy if he liked
you and you really wanted to like him. He could do a lot of things for you. And he was
fair. He was honest and he was fair. Maybe people didn’t like the way he ran things, but
in the long run it was good. He used to tell me, “Hamel, they can’t close this place, we’re
doing too good of a job! Keep the faith! Do your job and do it good!” He gave us good
moral support and he lived what he said and he believed what he said. But when those
buses came the first time to pick up those boys he couldn’t believe it.
MR. TRANDAHL: This was when they were closing the camp and moving the boys
away?
MR. HAMEL: Yep, they were moving the boys. Some of the boys transferred to other
camps that were staying open a little bit longer, those that were about to graduate. But
the ones who weren’t had no other place to go except that we gave them a one-way ticket
home. It was sad. Those boys, most of them liked it there. We were out in the woods
there at Tamarac. There’s the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge up there in the woods.
That’s what they wanted; a place that was isolated so that when they got there, the boys
could be slinking off. It was too far to walk and too cold to hitch a ride in the wintertime.
It was a good place to stay in the winter and learn something. We were doing a good job,
we were. We had good ratings. Our capacity was two hundred boys; fifty to a
dormitory. There were four dormitories. They were named bird names like the Redhead
dormitory, the Bluegill for the fish dormitory, golly, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten what
the other two were, but they were names of things that were on the refuge so that it all
kind of created the atmosphere of fish and wildlife. Of course we had our signs and
emblems and we wore uniforms. All of the employees were given a uniform allowance.
We had the shirts and that patches.
MR. TRANDAHL: So you wore the FWS uniform?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, we sure did. We had the hats; caps, coats, shirts, pants and then we
had our summer and then our winter uniform. We were given allotments to buy them
from different sources of supply. There was a catalog. All our vehicles were marked
with the FWS emblem on it. It was a nice organization. I thoroughly enjoyed it. They
finally closed it and when the boys were practically all gone and there were only a few of
the staff left, Bob Summers he took his daughter and her friend to the movies.
MR. TRANDAHL: He was the Camp Director?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, he was the Corpsmen supervisor. And it so happened that Howard
Woon left Refuges, well the refuge phase of it. He was the director from the Minneapolis
center. He was the director not only of Tamarac but a few other Job Corps centers in
region three. His fellow Bob Summers was an employee of FWS, but in the Job Corps
division. He came home that one night and he just couldn’t believe what was happening;
that they were doing totally away with the Job Corps part of it. He came home and his
daughter went in the house to go to bed. He drove the car in the garage and closed the
door and that’s were they found him the next morning. We had a strange incident with
one of the schoolteachers there. He went fishing. This was before Bob’s final day. He
went fishing to one of the close by lakes that were all around. Someway or another, he
didn’t make a curve and he ran smack dab into a big tree and that was the end of him.
People took Job Corps serious because it was a good program. It was betterment
for a lot of troubled boys. There also were some Job Corps sites in Omaha, Nebraska
and in Clinton, Iowa. These two were for females. They had similar programs for girls.
We used to do some corresponding with them for different functions and activities that
we could correlate with them.
MR. TRANDAHL: When did you leave from there?
MR. HAMEL: I was transferred to Bulla, Wyoming. I had never heard of such a place!
What in the world was there? It was a fish hatchery, USFWS fish hatchery. It was a
genetics research station raising Rainbow Trout. I arrived there on June 15, 1969. A
fellow by the name of Bruno Von Limbaugh was the Director. I can remember the first
words that he ever spoke to me. He never looked up. I walked in and introduced myself
to Edna Sager, the Clerk. They were expecting me because they had said that they could
take some of the employees that had quite a bit of time. At that time I had ten years in.
It was a little over ten years, in fact, and I didn’t want to waste it. I didn’t have enough
time to retire. I like the FWS and I wanted to continue. So that was the reason I took the
transfer even though I didn’t know anything much about the fish. I was told not to
worry. I would be taught anything and everything you’ll need to know. Well, it sounded
good. Of course they were trying to place as many people as they could, and people
were mostly grateful for that fact. I arrived there and the old boy says, “The first thing
you better do young man is find you a place to live!” I didn’t know what to think or say.
I asked him if he had any idea where I might be able to find a place. “We are not in the
business of renting places to live! We raise fish!” He told me to hurry and find a place to
live and get back in and get to work. I thought that was pretty rude and abrupt. I had
never been there before in my life. I didn’t know anyone, or any place to go to even look.
At that time there was a little motel on the highway, which was to become interstate 90.
It was five miles from the fish lab so I rented a room and started to look for a place to
live. I went to Spearfish and I went to Belle Fourche and Sundance. Things were tight. I
went ahead, before I brought family from Detroit Lakes to see what I could find, and let
them know where to bring the furniture and everything we had complete the move. I had
to call and tell them not to come. I couldn’t find anything! I said, “It’s just tighter than
fiddle strings!” So the McNenny State fish hatchery was real close. It was about seven
or eight miles from the Genetics Research Station. So I went over there and talked with
some of the employees. They didn’t really know of anything that could be rented or used
for a family to live in. They were moving fish. They were busy and I didn’t want to take
up any more of their time than I had to. So I came back and I didn’t know what to do.
One of the wives, Mrs. Storebeck, Clarence Storebeck’s wife, she had heard that there
were going to be some new employees down at Ranch A. She was curious to get
acquainted, and I was eager to talk with somebody that would be halfway what I thought
was civil and friendly. She told me that there was a ranch house just over the hill from her
place. I couldn’t believe what she was saying! The house might be available for rent. So
I jumped on that right quick, and sure enough it was about a mile and a half from
McNenny Fish Hatchery. I rented it from a farmer/rancher. It was a two-story house. I
rented the down part. It was two bedrooms, a big living room and a kitchen with a porch
and a garage. It was a rural setting, which eventually worked out real good. It was close
to Ranch A. The roads weren’t too good. I was lucky enough to have an old four-wheel
drive that sure came in handy. The roads were terrible. In the wintertime you couldn’t
hardly get there many times without chaining up the four wheel-drive to get down there
and then to get back. It was really tough on vehicles. The area was a beautiful area.
Ranch A was in a beautiful setting. It was a former ranch that the government had bought
previously through a lot of dealing from Mo Annenberg. His name went down in history.
That could be another story for another time. Ranch A was the Annenberg Ranch. It was
beautiful. They had a beautiful log lodge and a beautiful barn, which was built. There
was another two-story garage/living quarters. Then they had built another complex that
they called R and D One. That’s were they raised the small fish until they got to be six to
eight inches long or one or two pounds. Then, later on they built what they called the R
and D Two complex. This was the area for the adult fish. I worked with the adult fish.
There were a hundred and twenty-six tanks. Those tanks varied in size from four foot to
eight foot. What most of them were was metal livestock tanks that were coated so the
metal wouldn’t be toxic to the Rainbow Trout. Then, many of the other deep tanks; they
were about four foot deep and eight foot across fiberglass. All of that water down there
was artesian. The water was endless. They piped it through various ways to get the
most use out of it and raise fish up there at R and D One where they had the eggs. They
would spawn the fish and extract the eggs and put them in incubators. That’s where we
raised a lot of fish.
MR. TRANDAH: So these fish were being developed into new strains and things like
this through manipulating the genetics?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, they had several different stains of fish. We had a few albinos. But
basically it was the variations of the rainbow trout. What they wanted to do was
eventually; well, basically a rainbow trout will spawn once a year, usually in the spring.
They wanted to take those fish and hybridize them to the point where they would spawn
at least twice a year. The same fish would spawn twice a year. We cross bread, in bread,
out bread and eventually it was down. We had fish that would spawn twice a year. That
was a real big plus. But it was the way that the personnel was handled that was the sour
part of it. The employees were given very little consideration. The Director’s name will
give you an idea perhaps, of how things was ran, when his name was Bruno Von
Limbaugh. That’s kind of a tough twister, and he passed that on to his employees. He
was a very sharp, critical person.
MR. TRANDAHL: We changed the tape here; we were just talking about Bruno.
MR. HAMEL: Yeah, Bruno was an awful hard guy to work with or even for; that was
worse. Everybody, all the staff stayed as far away from him as they could because he
was always derogatory and critical. Even the neighborhood down there at Sand Creek,
close to the ranch never fraternized with the staff because he was so antagonistic. Finally,
one incident that we had was that we got word that we were going to have an inspection
from our office in Washington. We were directly administered from D.C. They had to
fly in to Rapid City and rent a car and drive out. Well, when they got there, it was
around mid morning about 9:30 or ten o’clock. They drove up to headquarters and he
was in the spring. I was cutting grass that particular morning with the lawnmower.
Bruno went out there to greet them and he said, “Where in the world have you fellows
been? We start work here at eight o’clock! That’s when I except you people to be here!”
He was giving those guys; his supervisors, what for and they were coming from
Washington, D.C.! They didn’t really take that too well. They didn’t like that. It
wasn’t very long after that that Mr. Bruno received transfer orders. He didn’t want to go,
but they threatened to close the place up because they didn’t feel, or at least the word got
down, that they didn’t feel that Bruno was accomplishing what the FWS wanted out of
Ranch A. He thought they were, so there was a big difference of opinion. He was on the
short end and they were on the authority end so he had to do what was sent down. He
eventually transferred back to Virginia, I guess. It is some place back east. When he got
there, the story that I’ve heard is, and it might be a little bit different according to whom
you talk to; but when he got there he didn’t have any staff, hardly a place to go to call an
office, or a room that had anything in it for furniture. He finally had to scrounge a chair
and a desk. He never really had anything to do. He was never given any directives to do
any work for the FWS. He finally just wrote a note in the desk, that he wasn’t coming
back and that was the end of him.
Later on, a fellow by the name of Bob Bridges and Ray Simon became directors of
the FWS Ranch Aide down there.
MR. TRANDAHL: Ray Simon was before Bob Bridges?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, Ray Simon followed Bruno. He was down there a couple years
maybe, and then he transferred out. Then Bob Bridges, who had been there, previously
under a different title, came back as Director. He would be the one to finalize the closing
of Ranch A. That morning; it was the early part of August or the later part of July, I’m
not real sure. It was early fall or late summer, that we had a staff at one time of probably
ten or fifteen people. Some lived in Sundance, some lived in Spearfish, some lived in
Bulla, and others lived right on the Ranch A complex itself. We, as soon as everybody
got there at eight o’clock, the word was that everybody was to go to the main office for a
staff meeting. Gee whiz, what in the world is going on now? Everybody walked in and
never said a word. They didn’t dare say anything. At least, that’s what we felt; we
didn’t want to get somebody’s foot shoved down our throats. We just were quiet and
listened to what was said. He said, “We are now officially closed. We will start phasing
out employees and fish tomorrow.” Everybody couldn’t believe what we were hearing!
It was the process of closing the Fish Genetics Laboratory at Bulla, Wyoming. I, and a
fellow by the name of Jack Howell, were offered, since we had been under a writ from the
Job Corps; we heard first hand that we would be given the first opportunity to transfer
someplace else. He took the transfer. I think he had just built a new home through an
FHA program or something like that. He had just about finished this new home in
Spearfish. I was living in Sundance, and had recently bought a house. My wife was
working at the manager of a motel there in Sundance. We had just recently acquired an
apartment house. We had an awful decision to make as to whether to transfer and take a
third chance with FWS, or go out on our own. I had enough time. I had I think it was 22
years of federal service; with my military and the time with refuges and the Jobs Corp.
And I had put in eleven years plus at Ranch A with the fisheries end of it. I was just
short of the age of fifty. You had to be fifty years old and have twenty years service to
be able to retire. My birthday is in November, and this happened in August, I believe. It
seems like it was in August. They got real sharp and nasty with me because I wouldn’t
transfer. When I asked them where I was to go they really wouldn’t tell me for sure; nor
would they give me any satisfaction of actually having a job when I transferred! I might
transfer and the job would be done away with before I’d get there. I just didn’t feel like I
totally wanted to trust those people. They had done a lot of crazy things to people
before, and I didn’t feel it was beyond them to do it again. I was worried again. I didn’t
know what to do. I was about six months short of being able to retire. I thought it was
pretty nasty of them not to make some kind of an arrangement so I could fulfill six more
months until I was fifty years old and then be able to retire. On my way home from
work, back to Sundance, our State Representative, Marlene Simons God bless her. I
stopped in there and she was home. I told her what the news was down there at Ranch A
and how they were closing it. I told her my situation and how I was just a little short of
being able to retire. There’s a lot of forest pastureland being permitted to ranchers. And
she and her husband had some forest land that they were running cattle on. The
forestland was neighbor to Ranch A. There was a lot of resentment and between and
jangle between Ranch A, the Forest Service and the Bemidji. Marlene and her husband
were somewhat in the middle because they were neighbors and they had land and cattle.
She didn’t exactly like the way that people had been treated in the past down at Ranch A.
She told me, “Don’t worry, I will get in contact with Cheyenne and we’ll see what we can
do.” That was the first part of the week, on a Monday or Tuesday. I think it was maybe
Wednesday, or the next day after I had seen Marlene that she went to bat. She called
Cheyenne; she called Dick Chaney at the time down there. She told him the situation
down there. Mr. Chaney said that that fellow, (me), being a Veteran and with as much
time as he’s got with federal work and with the FWS, will be able to retire. “We will see
to it that he does.” I think it was the next day after that that my wife, here in Sundance
received a call from Washington, D. C. They said don’t worry. They had received word
through Dick Chaney and Marlene Simons of the situation going on. I was told that I
would be transferred until I was old enough to retire. And if I wanted to take retirement
rather than continue I had that option. I was feeling pretty good. I did my job the best I
could to fill what they wanted, and to do what they wanted down. They got awful sharp
with me. They really got to me pretty bad. Bob Bridges, the Director at the time said,
“We have made arrangements.” I told him, “No, you haven’t made anything! I have had
telephone conversations, with paper work to follow that I will be able to retire and will be
transferred. I don’t know exactly where at the moment, but it’s all been taken care of and
you didn’t have a darn thing to do with it!” That really ticked him off! He didn’t like me
telling him what I already knew. But I just went to work, kept still and did my job and
the cards fell in the right direction. I was the last guy to leave and I was not sorry when it
happened. I did receive word that I would be transferred to the McNenny Fish Hatchery,
which was six, seven, maybe eight miles from Ranch A. I worked over there under Arden
Trandahl who turned out to be an awful good friend of mine. I think a lot of him! It come
to be November 2, and I was fifty years old. And I said, “I think I’ll just go home
Arden.” We had our home and business and I had my retirement from the FWS. I was
too young to retire. I was in good health and I kicked around for a little while. I had an
opportunity to become a security officer at the Wyodak Power Plant in Gillette,
Wyoming. Due to the fact that on refuges, part of my duties as clerk, I did various duties
as directed and as needed. I was a Game Warden. Through law enforcement, the state
laws of Nebraska, we regulated the refuge in co ordinance with state laws on hunting deer,
antelope, ducks, and some geese. It was my job along with the Refuge Manager and the
maintenance man also to check people who had been given authorization to hunt on the
refuge for a license; we had to make sure their hunting license was valid. We also checked
their bag limits. It certainly paid off in later life. That was my background that got me in
to security work over at the Wyodak power plant. I worked over there two winters and
one summer. One day, the County Sheriff who was living here of course at the time,
came over. He knew I was security officer. I had gotten acquainted with him. He said,
“Keith, I need a jailor. Why don’t you come over and start work?” I was surprised, a
jailor at a Jail? Working with all of those criminals? He told me, “It’s not as bad as you
think. Come on over and I’ll show you what I want you to do.” Holy Cow, I didn’t
know what to think! I knew that sixty miles every day was getting pretty heavy on the
old car. That was a lot of miles. He told me that I would have to use my own car to get
the meals for the inmates. Well, it the wintertime it can get pretty cold here and stay
cold. Driving a car two or three block and shutting if off and fighting snow is…. I don’t
know. I turned him down the first time. It was about a year to the month later, here he
come again. “I need a Jailor, and I want you to get over there this time!” He told me
about the sick leave, and health benefits and all of that good stuff. I told him, “Ron, I
don’t need the health benefits. I’ve got it from retiring from the FWS.” He says, “Well
super! We’ll just pay you for it!” That sounded pretty good. And he said that in
addition he had arranged to have a County vehicle to be used to go get meals for the
inmates. It sounded better all of the time. So I took him up and I became the second
Jailor that ever was in Cook County, Wyoming. I was the second Jailor and I also became
a Wyoming, Certified Jailor through going to school and obtaining my certification
through Douglas. I spent time down at Douglas learning techniques of being a Jailor. I
went to classes at Douglas and at Gillette. I was Cook County Jailor for seven years until
I was old enough to retire again.
MR. TRANDAHL: It’s really quite interesting that your background in the FWS was
very useful to you after you retired from the FWS.
MR. HAMEL: Very definitely. It was a total benefit! It worked out super.
MR. TRANDAHL: So what’s the best thing that ever happened to you in the FWS?
MR. HAMEL: The best thing that happened? Being hired!
MR. TRANDAHL: Well that’s a good answer!
MR. HAMEL: I never regretted that for a minute. Sure, there’s differences and
hardships that I went through, but all in all, man, that was it! That, I enjoyed!
MR. TRANDAHL: What’s the worst thing that happened to you then?
MR. HAMEL: Being transferred to Ranch A! [All laugh] That was something else.
MR. TRANDAHL: Well, there must have been some good experiences out there too,
though.
MR. HAMEL: Well, the one incident that really stands out in my mind that happened
very shortly after I retired. That was on November 2, 1980. I think November 2nd was
on a Friday. It worked out just perfect. It was the end of the pay period. I didn’t get to
see Arden too much. He came out, but his main stay was in Spearfish at the Booth Fish
Hatchery. That was number one, and there was McNenny. But never the less, it was a
valuable asset. I went home, finished up and waved goodbye. I was done. And the next
week, I believe it was, Arden began to set up the Christmas party for the employees as he
always did there, apparently. This was something totally different from what we ever
dreamed of at Ranch A. It was just another workday there. He called me long distance
and said, “What are you doing this Friday night?” I said, “I don’t know, what have you
got in mind?” And he told me that they were having a Christmas party and that they
wanted me to attend. I said, “What, a Christmas party?” He told me that all of the
employees were getting together and having a little party and they wanted me to come
too. That really swept me off my feet. I really didn’t know what to say. It kind of took
my breath away. My senses finally came back to me and I said, “Yeah, okay, what time
should I be there?” He said, “Oh, after supper. Right away we’ll have a little party with
a few snacks and have a good time. Six thirty or seven o’clock would work out good.” So
we did. We went down there and sure enough, everybody was having a good time and
visiting. It was unreal. I couldn’t believe the atmosphere. It was just unreal. It was
super! And later on Arden announced that we were going to have a grab bag. Holy Cow!
I hadn’t brought anything for a grab bag. He said, “Don’t worry about it, it’s all been
taken care of. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. So everybody reached
in and pulled a string out. It had a little package. They passed a little basket around and
it was my turn, so I pulled out a little package. There was a little bottle of a real good
perfume! I’ll tell you a little dab really did the trick! Everybody was joyful, and talking
about what they got and different things that happened. Arden came around and said,
“Did you get a package?” I told him I had. And he said, “Well good, I wanted everybody
to have something from the party.” That was great! That really made the whole thing
worth it. To my dying day I will always remember that.
MR. TRANDAHL: How did your family feel about your career with the FWS?
MR. HAMEL: Well, they enjoyed refuge. My youngest boy, the third member of the
family was born right after we moved there in 1961. So he was very small, but by the
time we left he was about ready to go to school. When we transferred to Detroit Lakes
we lived close to Frazee, Minnesota. They had a big school there. I think there were
about a thousand kids there that they bused in from all over; grade school kids and high
school kids too. It was a big school, and it was like night and day. I though, oh boy, here
we come from a little old one-horse grade school that had one teacher for several years;
and the education they received was quite narrow. Now, they get into a school with this
many kids and teachers. I didn’t know whether they were going to be able to handle that
or not. But they fit in good! It really worked good. As far as the family, well, we loved
it on the refuge but it was the fellowship that we had with the boys. Basically those
boys were kind, and quite courteous and they were respectful. My wife did volunteer
teaching during the school days. She worked during the day and then I would come in at
five o’clock and be with the boys ‘til about one in the morning when they went to bed.
They had a night check. There was another group of guys who made the night checks.
MR. TRANDAHL: This was at the Job Corps?
MR. HAMEL: Yes, this was the Job Corps site. I think the family enjoyed the Job
Corps because the kids were small and we went out to various activities and parties they
had on the weekends. I think they liked it pretty well too. But this fish place,
everybody was nervous on that one.
MR. TRANDAHL: Well, we’ve about run out of tape here. I just really enjoyed visiting
with you today Keith. We’ve really got some interesting things down here.
MR. HAMEL: It’s always a pleasure to visit with you Arden.
MR. TRANDAHL: We always know that sometimes in life the road is bumpy but
sometimes, well, we always generally get to the end of the road there, so. I am glad things
have worked out for you, and I have certainly enjoyed your friendship. I am just so glad
that you took the time to put some of your thoughts and experiences down on tape here.
These are very important for people to understand the FWS because we sometimes are
not really the image that people think we are. We generally have a good image, you know,
and have certainly the best employees in government, I think. I thank you very much and
we’ll see that you get a copy of this.
MR. HAMEL: Well, thank you Arden. And again, I appreciate everything you’ve done.
This has been an enjoyable afternoon.